HRC History Timeline
1765-1800
(Click any picture to zoom in; click browser back-button to zoom out.)
  • 1765 Rev. Issaic Rysdyck (HRC ministry 1765-1783) called as first pastor of Hopewell church. He also served the Poughkeepsie, Fishkill and New Hackensack congregations. Born in Holland. Knew Greek, Latin, Dutch, Hebrew, English. Wore a cocked hat, white flowing wig, polished knee buckles, rode horseback, lifted hat in greeting. Served to 1790.
  • Congregations divided between Conferenties (loyal to clergy from Holland) and Coetus (wanted to go the American way). Coetus sent a call to a Henricus Schoonmaker. Conferenties in Poughkeepsie barred the door to Schoonmaker. Schoonmaker preached in Fishkill, but not without dissention.

    1774 Assessment of box pews
  • 1771 35 Pews (7 seats/pew) and gallery added. Pews were later painted blue. Offerings were taken into a sack attached to a long pole. A small bell was also attached to the pole to awaken the resting.
  • "Ever since original purchase in 1771, owned or rented pews had been handed down from one generation to the next". Tenant farm families occupied the free but uncomfortable benches in the gallery.
  • 1771 by then a bell donated by Col. Dorick Brinckerhoff, in a tower over the west (back) end.
  • 1771 Rysdyck, with Dr. Henry Livingston, was able to effect a reconciliation between the Conferenties and Coetus.
  • 1772 Rysdyck president of synod.

    • HRC and Fishkill 1788 agreement to give 300 pounds for Dominie Rysdyck's retirement
    • 1778 Final resolution of Conferentie/Coetus conflict. Members of Coetus in Hopewell(Such as VanWyck family), joined the Hopewell church which had been Conferentie to this time.
    • 1783 Records changed from Dutch to English. Dr. Rysdyck and a Rev. Isaac Blauvelt (ministry 1783-1790), (2nd pastorate) alternated with services at the Hopewell and Fishkill churches
    • 1789 First Protestant Dutch Reformed Church of Hopewell (incorporated NYS-seal issued with the imprint of this first HRC. See picture of seal, above.)
    • (1791-1804) Rev. Nicholas VanVranken (3rd pastorate) installed as pastor at Fishkill, Hopewell & New Hackensack. He had become principal of Poughkeepsie's Academy, a precursor to Union College. He gave communion in both Dutch and English. Although he was fluent in Dutch and English, English gradually became the exclusive pulpit language. A popular Dominie: story goes that a farmer congregant told him to bring a sack and the farmer would fill it with oats; he brought an enormous sack made with sheets and the farmer filled it with oats in the sheaf.
    • 1775-1783 Revolutionary War. "No battle was ever fought on the soil of the Rombout Precinct; yet that soil was frequently pressed by the feet of the soldiers of the Revolution" (Rev. Oliver Cobb)
    • 1776 Declaration of Independence
    • 1781 British surrender at Yorktown (war's end)
    • 1789 President George Washington